


(And We're Set Alight) We're Afire, Love.

by jadoreliaa



Series: Twinverse. [3]
Category: Original Work, Twinverse - Fandom
Genre: Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, First Kiss, Flirting, Happy Ending, M/M, Photography, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-25 20:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14984660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadoreliaa/pseuds/jadoreliaa
Summary: In which Sebastian says yes and the universe exhales.





	(And We're Set Alight) We're Afire, Love.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my fave installment to write in this series thus far, I squee'd many a time. Title from "Afire Love" by Ed Sheeran.

The quiet was insular around them, all their senses felt pleasantly dimmed. The dark room was in its titular default state, the low red light were their eyes’ only aid; the plush silence was accentuated by the quick brushes of hard pencil over scaled down canvas paper and the soft swishes of photo paper into square pools of developer. Sebastian sat on a beanbag against the wall, sketch pad resting against the knees raised toward his chest as he faced the high table where Christian stood. This was often the case between them, their respective art forms playing proxy to the “come hither” tension that charged the air in the space that kept them apart. 

“Have I ever told you exactly how well you photograph? Because honestly.” The compliment was murmured while ice blue eyes were still hidden by wavy blond hair, Christian’s hands continued immersing photo paper into the liquid,his remarks almost said to himself as the image he was focusing on steadily cleared and sharpened. 

Sebastian gave an amused huff in response.

“Thank you, but modeling really isn’t my true calling. First of all, I’m short. Also, I have no desire to make a career out of any clothes that aren’t mine.”

Christian shook his head and looked up through his hair, gazing across the room with fondness sparkling in his eyes. Sebastian effortlessly embodied multiple attractive traits at once; his lightning wit, general irreverence and fervent passion for what he did were three of the things Christian loved most about him. His ethereal features were another subject altogether. Those were primarily the prompting of his initial comment. He removed the thick sheet of paper from the water with a caution that was purely habit though he knew that at that point the image had been properly rendered. Christian lifted the picture and pinned it onto one of the taut lines of hemp rope traversing close to the ceiling of the room, subtly making sure the image was facing Sebastian.

“I’m serious, look.” Sebastian hummed in inquiry, not looking up from his sketch.

“Sebastian, look.” The boy in question finished a hemline, rested his pencil against his sketch pad and casted a glance up at Christian. 

“Yes, now what am I looking at?” Christian chuckled and it was followed by a restful sigh.

“Come here.” He inclined his chin just so, as if giving the younger boy directions to the conversation that were contingent upon Christian receiving his attention. Sebastian got up slowly, taking care to extend his knees which had been bent like that for the better part of two hours. He crossed the room in five strides, stopping a few feet in front of Christian, the newly rendered photo the only thing between them. Sebastian mimicked Christian’s pose and stood with his arms crossed.

“Okay, so?” Sebastian asked, still a few paces away from the point, similar to the infuriating distance of a late individual from a departing bus.

“Look,” Christian implored with a gesture to the picture hanging above them, “tell me what you see.” Sebastian looked up, his long eyelashes ascending with his eyes’ focus, casted delicate shadows under his eyebrows as his full lips pursed and wrinkled in that way they did when he was considering intent. 

“Um, myself. Those three weird curls that never really sit right. Uh, the line of my neck is really nice? Really widens the hem of that collar. Ooh, I love that collar, cable knit always sews so well if you just have the patience, it’s not hard to work with at all, that’s totally a myth and--”

“Okay, yes,” Christian interrupted, a smile colouring the usual pewter grey of his North London accent a warm yellow, “those things are all there. But they’re on the fringes of the picture. The important part of a photograph is the centre.” At this, he reached up and unpinned the picture, turning it to himself. He raised his eyes from the photo of in his hands to the boy in front of him, raising his eyebrows. Sebastian moved a few steps forward, resting an elbow on the table behind them as he looked from Christian to the picture he was holding. 

“Alright, Mr. Photographer. Show me the centre. Tell me what I’m supposed to be looking at.” Christian then pinned it back to the line above, now facing them. 

“Well first, the weight in the shot is carried by your cheekbones, see?” He gestured with spindly fingers across the picture. “They bisect the whole image horizontally and give it symmetry at the same time.” Christian glanced next to him to see Sebastian with his head slightly tilted and a brow furrowed and he nodded slowly, dark curls bouncing slightly.

“Yeah, okay. But everyone has cheekbones, you can thank my dad for mine.” Christian rolled his eyes and tried not to giggle. 

“I wasn’t done, Seb. The warmth of your skin and the width of your eyes is next. See, your eyes are in the top half, lifted by your cheekbones. And because they’re so sharp, they create these lovely hollows in your cheeks that catch the sunlight and make you look this golden. Not that you aren’t every bit as lovely indoors.” At this, he looked over again and was met with the sight of Sebastian ducking his head to hide the bashful curve of his lips. Christian raised an eyebrow mirthfully. 

“What’s this?” He asked with his voice a cross between deliberately bemused and teasing. “Are you… blushing? Did I get the hardcore, infallible, ever composed Sebastian Woo to blush?”

Sebastian looked up with a snap of his head, protests tripping over in each in their collective effort to escape his mouth. 

“What? No! I’m not-- it isn’t--, it’s just cold in here, okay?” 

“Sebastian, you’re right under the table bulb.” The boy in question looked up to the rectangular bulb above him, casting a red light around the room.

“Well, there! It’s your stupid picture bulb.” A smile danced on Christian’s lips as if the prompting amusement twirled around his mindscape.

“So it’s the bulb, huh? And not the fact that I mentioned how golden your skin is? And certainly not the fact that I called you lovely, right?”

Sebastian refused to meet Christian’s eyes and heat flooded his face even quicker. 

“You gotta stop doing that.” Sebastian murmured in response, rich brown eyes intent on his shoes as he wrung his hands in front of him.

“Doing what?” Christian asked in a tone just as low as he stepped closer. Sebastian chanced a glance up and quickly looked back down backing up quickly until the small of his back met the table behind him. 

“You have to stop saying things that make me wanna kiss you.” Sebastian said in a rush, as if the quicker he spit out the words, the quicker the embarrassment would leave his body. Christian stopped where he was, with roughly a foot of space left between him and the smaller boy. He bit his lip and looked down as he smiled. He reconquered the space he had left behind and turning to lean with his back against the table, rested on his elbows, his expression leisurely. He cast a sidelong glance at his something-more-than-a-friend who was still making every effort not to look at him. 

“Seb, come here.” 

Sebastian looked up, his wide eyes filled with poorly concealed reluctance and he slid his feet across in shuffles until he stood directly in front of Christian. 

“Mm-hmm?” His eyes had returned to his shoes, even more anxious now that there were mere inches between him and the person that made him feel everything he swore wasn’t meant for cynics. 

Christian hadn’t moved, the still line of his body prompting Sebastian to relax in a minutiae of increments. 

“Is there a problem with you wanting to kiss me? Because honestly, I’m not seeing it.” Christian quipped, the ease in his voice reflecting his posture.

Sebastian looked up through his thick mass of curls, meeting Christian’s steady gaze, the intensity of which betrayed the unaffected stillness of his stance as if mirroring a brewing storm above a placid lake. The younger boy slid forward once more, the rough glide of his shoes over the hardwood floor the only noise in the silent room and the only thing besides the tension between the two that implied presence.

“The problem is,” he mused as looked up and met Christian’s eyes, “if I kissed you, I don’t think I’d be able to stop.” Christian exhaled and ran his tongue across his lower lip, the only two changes to his stoicism that implied he heard Sebastian. He drew up to his full height and reached out to take Sebastian’s hand in his, holding his gaze. He pulled their joined hands up to his chest, effectively pulling Sebastian closer. The tension between them was cosmic, their eyes held an opaque gravity that barred anything from coming between their breaths.

“What are you saying?” Christian asked, his tone light and not at all betraying the trembling in his chest. Sebastian leaned up and impossibly closer and whispered into the air swimming between their lips.

“I’m saying yes.”

From one heartbeat to the next, the meaning dawned on Christian; it was as quick and as shifting as sunlight breaking through winter clouds. Sebastian was saying yes to him; Sebastian was saying yes to them.

As Sebastian saw the joy diffuse in the dilating pupils of the taller boy’s blue eyes, he surged forward and closed the gap, Christian meeting him perfectly. The blond dropped a hand to cradle Sebastian’s cheek and Sebastian tilted his head, parting his lips to deepen the kiss as he looped his free hand around Christian’s neck. He felt Christian smile into the kiss and then he leaned back a scant few centimetres to reverse their positions, pressing Sebastian into the table with his hands on his angular hips. He brushed their noses together and earned a giggle from Sebastian. 

“There, now you don’t have to stand on your tiptoes.” He cut off Sebastian’s ensuing protest by fitting their lips together once more and Christian could swear he felt the prospective argument morph into a moan as Sebastian sighed happily into his mouth. Christian cradled his jaw in his hands, tilting the smaller boy’s head back slightly to deepen the kiss even further as he coaxed Sebastian’s tongue into playing with his own. Sebastian made the tiniest enamored noises into his mouth in response, hitting Christian right where he lived as he gave as good as he got. With a few parting licks to the roof of his mouth that made Sebastian tremble in his arms, Christian pulled back. He stared at Sebastian and ran a caressing thumb over the high point of his cheekbone, taking in his flushed cheeks, blown pupils and slick full lips. As Sebastian licked over his lower lip and stared back, Christian gathered the shorter boy up in his arms and couldn’t resist kissing him again softly, joining those plush lips with his as if Sebastian was precious. Once, twice, three times. 

Sebastian pulled back and stared up at the boy who had gone through so much to love him. 

“What?” Christian murmured into the space between their faces, matching Sebastian’s searching gaze. Sebastian shook his head and smiled, eyes bouncing with his curls.

“Nothing.” Sebastian responded and closed the distance between their lips once more.


End file.
